A Canadian mother says she’s been unfairly separated from her South Africa-born daughter after Citizenship and Immigration Canada repeatedly denied the toddler entrance to Canada.
Vancouver-born Susan Standfield is a fifth generation Canadian, which makes her two-year-old daughter, Meg Spooner, Canadian too. But a series of applications for Meg to move to Canada have all failed, and Standfield says she doesn’t understand why.
“My daughter’s citizenship rights are being violated,” Standfield told CTV News Channel Friday.
Standfield recently moved back to Canada for a job and planned to resettle her family on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast. But those plans have been halted after two visa applications and a passport application for Meg were all denied.
It was a surprise for the mother, who assumed her daughter would easily get accepted; she had already begun searching for a home in B.C. The family is now divided across the world, with Meg living with her British father and brother in South Africa.
Standfield has been living alone in B.C. and hasn’t seen her children in two months.
“It’s a disaster, it’s painful. I don’t want to give up fighting. I have to see my children soon,” she said. “My daughter is having anxiety because she is separated from me. It’s very hard for her to see me on the computer, and she won’t let go of my husband.”
A visitor’s visa for Meg was denied because Citizenship and Immigration Canada didn’t accept her South African birth certificate, Standfield says, and a passport application was later rejected because paperwork was processed after the girl turned two.
Standfield says Canadian officials in South Africa then advised her to submit another visa application. It was also denied.
“They were worried there were not enough reasons to prove she was returning to South Africa,” she explained to CTV Vancouver.
Asked about the case, Immigration Minister Chris Alexander refused to answer directly, saying that “individual cases really cannot be commented upon.”
But according to a citizenship advocate, the case is cut-and-dry – Meg should have been approved in the first place.
“The child is a Canadian citizen,” said Don Chapman, founder of Lost Canadians, a group that advocates for those who have lost or were never granted citizenship. “All you need to prove you're a Canadian citizen in this situation is the child's birth certificate, and the mother's birth certificate.”
In the meantime, Standfield says she’s feels stuck. She’s reached out to her local MP and hopes that speaking up will make a difference in the case.
“We’re falling through the cracks and I wouldn’t want any other family to experience what we’re experiencing,” she said.
With files from CTV Vancouver
